


Band T-Shirts

by amirosebooks



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Agent Beyonce references, Cas is a troll and a smartass, Castiel and Dean Winchester Go Shopping, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Human Castiel, M/M, Pop Culture, Post-Season/Series 13, Team Free Will, ignoring the whole michael!dean cliffhanger, the Dean Cave, thrift store
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 10:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15313605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amirosebooks/pseuds/amirosebooks
Summary: From this prompt:There's a sort of standard fanon idea that when Cas becomes human, he borrows Dean's clothes for a while, and then eventually the brothers take him to Good Will or wherever for his own clothes.I want to see that shopping trip. Basically just an excuse for fun shenanigans in a thrift store. I was thinking very new relationship for Dean and Cas, early days. Bonus points if Sam and Dean have some kind of game they've been playing in thrift stores across the country since they were kids, and if Cas comes up with some super goofy outfits. :D





	Band T-Shirts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jemariel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jemariel/gifts).



> A perk bonus fic from the DeanCas Anthology I wrote for. The thrift store they're visiting is loosely based on one I frequented a lot as a teenager growing up in Northern California, including the Led Zeppelin poster hanging on the wall. It was the first place that came to mind when she said "Winchesters" and "thrift store shopping" together.

Dean turned into the parking lot he’d seen online. He passed the old tire shop and a martial arts studio aimed at kids. The remnants of a long abandoned K-Mart sign hung across the front of the strip mall in front of them. To the right of the abandoned store was a sign that read _Second Chances_. 

It was well into the hundreds in Northern California that day with next to no humidity. Stepping outside felt like staring into an open oven while you were baking pie. Dean eyed the large oak tree that shaded the parking lot warily, looking for birds who were ready to mark up the Impala’s spotless paint.

“Wait, where the hell are we?” Sam asked from the passenger seat. He’d finally pulled out his earbuds and was looking around the parking lot with a furrowed brow.

“Cas needs clothes,” Dean said as he parked under the tree. 

“Are we at a _thrift store_?” Sam asked.

Dean got out of the car. He was wrong about the heat before, it wasn’t like an oven, with the drought it was more like an open oven in the middle of the desert in the summer. 

“What’s a thrift store?” Cas asked. His dark hair was matted over his forehead with sweat. In spite of everything, he seemed to be taking to the whole being human again thing pretty well.

Dean looked across the roof of the Impala at Sam’s bitchface and gave his brother a warning shake of his head. Then he turned to take hold of Cas’s hand and started to lead them toward the storefront. “It’s a type of clothing store that Sam thinks he’s too good for now in his advanced age.”

Cas frowned at Dean. “Sam is not very old. Are you taking me to a children’s clothing store?” 

“No, Cas,” Sam said. “It’s not a kids clothing store. Look, thrift stores are fine. We used to shop at them all the time growing up because the clothes there are cheap and we never had a lot of money to spare on stuff like winter coats or pants that actually fit us.” 

“It wasn’t dad’s fault you grew like a Sasquatch,” Dean said. 

Sam glared back. 

Dean tightened his grip on Cas’s hand and held the door to the thrift store open for him. Cas gave him a small smile as he brushed against Dean’s chest while walking through the door. Dean followed after with his own growing smile. This whole thing between them, the thing where they held hands and kissed, was still new and left Dean breathless more often than not.

“How are you two even worse now that you’re together?” Sam asked.

“What?” Dean asked, looking over his shoulder at Sam.

“You let the door slam shut in my face and then you stood here in front of it making googly eyes at each other for, like, five minutes,” Sam said. 

“Sorry?” Dean winced and turned back to Cas. 

The former angel was staring around the warehouse sized store turned thrift store with a wide-eyed awe that reminded Dean of Jack. Not for the first time, Dean wondered if that kid hadn’t managed to steal some of Cas’s attributes in the womb when he and Kelly hijacked Cas’s life for a few weeks. 

Dean tugged on Cas’s hand and leaned into Cas’s space. “What do you think so far?”

“It’s so much more than a clothing store,” Cas said. He spared Dean a brief glance before returning to his study of the store. “I can see furniture and toys and shelves filled with cassette tapes. There’s even a poster on the wall over there that would look good in The Dean Cave.”

Cas pointed at the wall next to the door behind a long glass jewelry case. Sure enough, on the wall above the counter was a Sam-sized poster for Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. 

Dean didn’t realize he’d let go of Cas’s hand and wandered away until he felt the cool glass of the jewelry counter beneath his hands. A bored teenager in an oversized sweater with purple streaks in their dark hair sat behind the counter scrolling through something on their cell phone. He cleared his throat, trying to get the teenager’s attention. When the teenager rolled their eyes up from the phone screen to look at Dean, he smiled and pointed at the poster. 

“How much for the poster?” Dean asked.

“Which poster?” the teenager asked. 

Dean blinked at them and looked up at the wall. There was a scattered collection of various old music posters. Some advertising concerts from when Dean’s parents were teens and a few others that were more recent. 

“The Zeppelin one,” Dean said. The teenager stared at him blankly. Dean pressed his lips together for a moment, then tried again. “The Stairway to Heaven one?”

“‘S’not for sale,” the teenager said before going back to their phone.

“What do you mean?” Dean asked. 

“It belongs to my boss,” the teenager said as they stared at the phone. 

Dean opened his mouth, ready to launch into a tirade when a hand landed on his shoulder. Sam’s judging face looked down at him as Sam tightened his grip on Dean’s shoulder. Sam apologized to the teen for Dean’s attitude and drug him away from the counter.

“No, Sam, you don’t understand,” Dean said. “I need it. I need that poster.”

“Find one online,” Sam said. 

“It’s not the same,” Dean said. “This one is framed and it’s _huge_. I need it.”

“The frame wouldn’t fit in the Impala,” Sam said. Dean scowled and started mentally rearranging things in the car so the framed poster would fit on the drive back to Kansas. Sam waved a hand in front of his face. “Forget the poster. Aren’t we supposed to be here getting clothes for Cas?”

Dean blinked and looked around. “Wait, where is Cas?”

“He wandered into the clothing racks after you took off to yell at minimum wage employees,” Sam said. 

“I didn’t yell,” Dean said. He looked around the store trying to find Cas’s unruly mess of dark hair. He spotted the wild hair about three seconds before catching sight of the pile of clothing Cas had cradled in his arms. Dean made his way down one of the narrow aisles, meeting Cas’s smile as he joined Cas in front of a row of hangers. “What’d you find?”

Cas pulled a hanger off the metal rack in front of him and held it up at arm’s length. “Do you think this would fit me?”

Draped over the thin metal hanger was a long piece of dark fabric covered in gold sequins. The sequins shimmered in the overhead fluorescent lighting. Cas’s expression was devoid of nuance, all blank and unreadable. 

Dean swallowed. Was this Cas’s way of telling him something? Had they incorrectly assumed Cas’s gender for years just because of Jimmy’s vessel? Shit like this made him miss his Charlie even more. Not that the one they’d rescued with the group from the apocalypse world wasn’t great in her own right, but she wasn’t the Charlie Dean knew. She wasn’t the person Dean could call up in a panic because he just realized he’d mistaken his boyfriend’s gender for years and how do you go about making up for something like that?

“Is that something you’d be more comfortable in?” Dean asked. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for keeping his voice steady. He could be supportive and helpful now and berate himself for being an oblivious asshole later. 

Cas shifted the dress to the side and stepped into Dean’s space. He shook his head and gave Dean a quick kiss. “You’re sweet, Dean.”

“Thank you?” Dean asked.

“I don’t want the dress,” Cas said. “But I did find a few band t-shirts in this aisle.”

Dean looked down at the pile of clothing in Cas’s other hand and watched with wide eyes as Cas showed off the Britney Spears and Beyonce tour t-shirts he’d found. He glanced at Cas’s face to find the former angel grinning proudly. 

“That’s not really what I meant when I told you to find band t-shirts,” Dean said.

Cas rolled his eyes and carefully draped the shirts over his forearm again. “They make good music, Dean. Just because you insist on listening to music from when your parents were dating doesn’t mean their music isn’t good too.”

“I didn’t…” Dean’s mouth snapped shut as Cas turned and started making his way down the aisle in the opposite direction. “I never said their music wasn’t good.”

Cas kept walking. Dean looked up at the fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling for a moment before following him. 

By the time they reached the men’s clothing section, Cas was finally talking to him again. Dean gave him pointers on what kinds of clothing Cas would need and tried his best to keep his opinions about the prints and colors Cas gravitated towards to himself. It was difficult not to raise an eyebrow at the oversized blue sweater with an embroidered rubber duck on it, but Cas’s smile when he showed it to Dean helped Dean cover his knee-jerk what-the-fuck-is-that reaction. He also made sure Cas knew what kinds of things _not_ to buy at a thrift store—underwear, worn in shoes, and anything stained or smelly. 

After they’d loaded up on clothes they toured through the electronics section where Dean found an old video game system for The Dean Cave before moving on to the music section. The box of vinyl records was already picked over pretty well by hipsters, but the cassette tape collection had a few Dean was missing. 

They found Sam standing awkwardly near the front of the store. 

“What took you guys so long?” Sam asked when he spotted them. “There’s only so long I can stand here without someone thinking I’m a creeper and it’s way to hot to go back to the car.”

“Quit being dramatic.” Dean rolled his eyes. He looked over the stack of books and DVDs in Sam’s hands and frowned. “Wait, why didn’t you get any clothes? That’s why we’re here, Sam.”

“Dude, I haven’t been able to fit into thrift store clothes since I was sixteen, remember?” Sam nodded at Cas. “Besides, he’s the one who needs clothes. Did you find anything you like, Cas?”

“I did,” Cas said. “Dean doesn’t approve of some of the things, but I like them.”

“I didn’t say that,” Dean said as he gaped at Cas. He turned back to Sam and shook his head. “I never said that.”

“Did you try everything on yet?” Sam asked. 

“No,” Cas said with a confused frown.

“I’ll help,” Dean said. He shoved the things he’d found for himself into Sam’s hands. “Hold these. We’ll be right back.”

“Gross,” Sam said. “If you two get arrested I’m letting you rot.”

“Whatever you say, asshole,” Dean said as he held Cas by the shoulders and steered him through the store to the dressing room. When they got there, Dean sorted through the pile of clothing Cas had found before nudging his boyfriend into the room. “Try those on and let me see them before you change again.”

When Cas opened the curtain to the dressing room a few minutes later, Dean’s eyes bulged as he looked Cas over. The dark jeans they’d found fit him everywhere except his thighs which made the fabric stretch to its limits. Over the jeans Cas had slipped on one of his Britney Spears t-shirts. She wore dark eyeliner and a hat that obscured part of her face. The t-shirt also barely fit over Cas’s surprisingly broad shoulders and would probably ride up if he raised his arms. 

“How do I look?” Cas asked.

Dean looked around the store for a moment to see if any employees were watching them, then he stepped forward to grab hold of Cas’s hipbones with one hand and threw the curtain closed behind him with the other. He kissed Cas as he pushed the former angel’s back against the flimsy dressing room wall. 

Cas smiled into the kiss. “You like what you see?”

“I do,” Dean said. He pulled down and considered Cas’s shirt again. “Though it is a little weird that she’s staring at me like that.”

Cas rolled his eyes. 

“Seriously though,” Dean said as he gave Cas a slow kiss. “Let’s set these jeans aside as special occasion jeans, okay?”

“Special occasion jeans?” Cas asked.

Dean hummed in agreement. “Ones you only wear for me because they look too damn good on you.”

Cas sighed dramatically. “I guess that can be arranged.”

They continued to make out in the dressing room until Sam finally came by and hissed that the manager had showed up and was starting to ask about the extra set of feet under the dressing room curtain. Begrudgingly, they separated and made their way up front. Dean made another plea to the girl at the front counter and her boss to let him buy the Zeppelin poster, but was denied again. 

After a few minutes on the road, while Dean tried to navigate through the unfamiliar city, Cas started digging through the plastic shopping bags in the back seat. Dean glanced in the rearview mirror at him.

“You looking for something?” Dean asked.

“I found a music tape at the store,” Cas said. “I thought we could listen to it. Ah, here it is.”

“Sure,” Dean said. “Pass it to Sam.”

“Oh yes, this is awesome,” Sam said a moment later.

Dean didn’t get the chance to see the tape Cas had pulled from the bag because someone in a large van tried merging into Baby’s passenger side. Dean honked the horn and swore up a storm while he successfully avoided an accident. He was still bitching under his breath when Sam ejected the Styx album from Baby’s tape deck and put in the tape Cas had found. 

The piano notes at the start of the song seemed strangely familiar as the tape started to play. It wasn’t until the beat started to break down and the singer started that Dean realized what Cas had found.

“Are we seriously listening to genie in a fucking bottle right now?” Dean asked. Sam cackled in the passenger seat. His forehead was nearly on the dashboard as he clutched his stomach and laughed. Dean glared at his brother for another moment before turning the glare towards the rearview mirror and his boyfriend staring placidly at him from the back seat. “What the fuck, Cas?”

“Christina Aguilera is a very talented singer, Dean,” Cas said. “And you said we could listen to the tape I found.”

“Yeah Dean, you let your boyfriend pick the music,” Sam said. 

“I hate both of you right now,” Dean said. Then he reached over to the radio’s volume nob and turned the song up. He pointed at Sam. “Not a fucking word.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, what is it about writing fluff (especially fluff with a healthy mix of crack thrown in) that makes me want to cover my face and hide? I had a lot of fun with this prompt, especially when trying to come up with ways to put Cas in clothing the Winchesters would find questionable without being a dick about it. Also, omg pop music loving Cas is my new favorite thing, but I love the whole "Agent Beyonce" and "Agent Aguilera" references in the show.
> 
> I really wanted to work in a nerf gun fight of some kind (even if it took place back at the bunker with things they found in the store) but I was already over my word count so just imagine that's the direction this would go when they got home.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed it too, especially jemariel who asked me to write it! 
> 
> You can find me on tumblr here: [amirosebooks](http://amirosebooks.tumblr.com/)


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